This
is an example of the new generation of high-definition recordings that
are coming out of recording technology leader Telarc, based in
Cleveland OH. Unlike at least one other release, this is available in
SACD (Sony/Philips Super Audio CD) format only: there is no equivalent
DVD-A version.

Never mind. You can pick up a decent SACD player for $300, so the only
thing you have to worry about is where to plug an additional 5.1 analog
input. And if you get one for Christmas, this album is of course what
you play on it to impress your friends.

And impress them you will. This is another excellent piece of work from
Telarc, and with experienced engineers like Michael Bishop at the helm
(with Jack Renner in this case), you would expect nothing else. Telarc
now use the Sony/Philips DSD (Direct Stream Digital) technology to
capture the majority of their recordings, releasing them directly on
SACD or converting them to PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) for CD or DVD-A
release (or for the Red Book layer on hybrid disks like this).

This kind of performance – orchestral recordings or live performances
where there is no major multitrack mixing – is ideal for DSD. The
recording was made in the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City by mixing
in analog and recording to DSD multichannel digital for editing and
release. The sound is clear and clean and very, very smooth and
"analog-like", as if you are listening directly to the analog mixing
console output. This is what you want recording technology to do: to
get out of the way and let you listen to the music: the recording is
virtually flawless. Even the Red Book layer sounds good; the stereo
hi-def mix great… and the surround mix quite incredible. If you want to
demonstrate the superiority and impressiveness of surround, this is a
good album to use – especially since the stereo mixes here are of the
same high quality.

But talk about "performance dynamics": this performance is enormous! My
own musical background is choral singing (I used to be in the choir of
Coventry Cathedral in England many years ago) and these huge
arrangements, notably the opener, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" that
really jump out of the speakers, make my heart jump too. The
arrangements are extremely sophisticated, powerful and moving: many of
them brought tears to my eyes. This must have been an incredible
performance to sing in.

Usually I have trouble with American versions of Christmas carols
because the English versions have so much better tunes and thrilling
descants you never seem to hear in the US (check out the traditional
Christmas Eve service from King’s College, Cambridge this year if you
don’t believe me, either on NPR or on the Net from www.bbc.co.uk) but
on this occasion the arrangements (mainly by Mack Wilberg) generally
made up for any deficiencies in the tunes department. Almost. Even
using "Greensleeves" as a Christmas melody, silly thing that it is,
nearly works if you put enough oomph behind it.

Inevitably, however, I am going to have to point to the big, major
Hollywood epic-sized carols on this album as the high points of this
disc. "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" (which is simply enormous, and
includes the wonderful bass strings part that you really HAVE to
include), "The First Noel", "Joy To The World", and "Angels From The
Realms of Glory", for example, do sound as if they just jumped out of
the closing titles of some major Christmas epic movie. You can just
imagine it (in black and white, of course): the camera tracking back
and up, so that the happy Town Square carolers singing with their
twinkling lanterns in the falling snow become smaller and smaller in
the distance as we begin to see the night sky spread out overhead with
one bright star directly above, and the words "The End" fade up over
the image…

This is the gorgeous soundtrack for a sumptuous, cinematic, surround
Christmas. I, for one, loved it, and I hope you will too. This show
will run and run.